Lady Gaga has announced she is releasing her third studio album next year called ARTPOP. "Make sure that when writing about my new album/project ARTPOP that you capitalise the title," she posted on Twitter on Sunday. Two weeks ago, Gaga played a new dance song from the album for a group of fans that ambushed her car in New York. She also debuted a new track, the ballad Princess Die, during a concert in Melbourne in June. The singer just finished shooting her debut film role in director Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills, co-starring with Jessica Alba, Zoe Saldana and Mel Gibson.
Wacky Korean music video goes viral
An eccentric South Korean K-pop singer has become a global online hit after a video of his latest song was viewed more than 15 million times on YouTube. Park Jae-Sang, 34, better known by his stage name "Psy", is riding high in the charts inside and outside Korea with Gangnam Style, a track from his sixth album. The song is No 1 on Korea's major music charts and is also high on the iTunes charts in the US, Canada, Finland, New Zealand and Denmark. Psy told the Yonhap News Agency on Sunday: "My motto is 'be funny but not stupid'." * AFP
Dumb and Dumber sequel back on track
The plans to make a sequel to the 1994 hit comedy Dumb and Dumber were thrown into jeopardy after Jim Carrey dropped out of the project early this year, but the actor is now back on board, confirmed his co-star Jeff Daniels, who announced shooting begins next year. "Jim wants to do it, I want to do it," he said. * IANS
Spike Lee to be honoured at Venice festival
The filmmaker Spike Lee will be honoured at the Venice Film Festival for his contribution to cinema. "Lee is a bold creative spirit, the author of daring and corrosive films that challenge us to rethink our prejudices and our preconceptions," said Venice's artistic director Alberto Barbera. Lee is also set to premiere his new Michael Jackson documentary, Bad 25, at the festival, which runs from August 29 to September 8. * IANS
Mexican icon Chavela Vargas dies at 93
The Mexican singer Chavela Vargas, known for her mastery of the bolero, died on Sunday at the age of 93. She had been in intensive care for a week after returning from a trip to Spain to promote her new album La Luna Grande. "I'm not going to die, because I am a shaman and we do not die, we transcend," Vargas said on Friday. That night, a group of fans came to the hospital to serenade her. Famed around most of the Spanish-speaking world, the singer was best known for her songs La Llorona and Paloma Negra. * AFP
